


I'll Tell Your Story

by orphan_account



Series: Another story line of the Vampire AU [5]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:17:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22269112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The next morning, Deniss came into his office and received a letter.
Series: Another story line of the Vampire AU [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602937
Kudos: 2





	I'll Tell Your Story

It should, by all means, be a normal working day for Deniss, bar the fact that Stephane wouldn’t come to office in the morning. Deniss realized that he hadn’t asked about Stephane’s future plans as he got off the train, because he was effectively drowned in paperwork in the past few days. As a spokesperson, there was a lot to do prior to the oath-taking, the media conference and the first session of the provisional cabinet meeting. He made a mental note to call Stephane, maybe on the weekend, to chat about it.

As usual, he was greeted by a pile of letters in his pigeon hole. He attempted to hide his grumble upon receiving them-he still didn’t know why the mail system was still there. _Communicate by Email,_ he thought frustratingly, _which always comes with a title and the sender’s name, so that I can properly sort them out before tending to all of them._ It’s just not a good idea to have unsigned letter lying around. And he wasn’t by any means a specialist in identifying handwritings on the envelope.

But today, there was one handwriting that he recognized. The small and round writing, with a black pen, on a normal plain envelope. It should be Stephane’s handwriting.

It was a little bit strange to communicate by mail between them. By now, they shouldn’t have any official engagement left that would need a statement of enquiry in writing. For all other personal things, they can communicate face-to-face, or by phone; they were no longer in the turbulent years in which they need to avoid leaving marks in the digital form.

Maybe there’s something that Stephane felt more comfortable to tell him by writing, or maybe it could be something that Stephane thought of last-minute before he left office, Deniss thought, while carefully cutting the envelope open with a pen knife.

A paragraph into the short letter, Deniss knew it was more on a personal side. Stephane spoke with a parent-like loving tone, rather than the professional and formal one he always use in official documents and notices. And Deniss was more than happy to read such a letter, with the warmth he always longed for. Surely he had many personal friends and was on good terms with many colleagues, but Stephane was somewhat different. Especially after both Satoko and Koshiro-those two humans who had been with him in his early years-passed away, Stephane was probably the only one left.

He realized something wasn’t right only after reading a half of it. It was a good-bye letter, for sure, as Stephane stepped down from the committee for his personal commitments, which Deniss hadn’t asked about; but there was something else under the warm tones; but it might just be him over-thinking everything and being grumpy over all those paper mails.

Until he came to the reverse of the page.

“J’ai eu un voyage très long, et il est temps de faire une pause. Bonne chance et travaille bien.*”

Stephane didn’t sign the letter off with “à plus” or even “ciao”, which he always did with Deniss in their personal correspondences. Instead, he signed it off with ‘adieu’-a very very dated expression, even at the time when they first met.

Deniss sat there for a moment and consulted the dictionary in his brain. He had become reasonably good in both English and French, but it still took some time for him to realize that, besides being used as ‘goodbye’, it could also mean ‘farewell’. He immediately grabbed his phone and attempted to call Stephane-but no one picked it up.

He ran out of his office, with the letter in hand. He didn’t really have a plan, but he couldn’t stay here right now. He might have received a few stares on his way to the main reception, but he couldn’t care more about it.

“Deniss!” Somebody grabbed his arm as he moved towards the main entrance. “What are you doing?”

Deniss turned around. It was Liza, dressed in her suit and heels. “I-I need to talk to Steph.” He looked at his watch, “It’s not official working time yet-”

Liza pointed to the glass walls. “It’s not, but the sun-even if you have better tolerance than some of us, there’s no way you could safely arrive-wherever you need to go. Even if it’s an emergency, I’m sure you can call him-”

Deniss was even more frustrated. “I tried, and no one’s picked it up. With this-” he showed the handwritten letter to her, “I-he said goodbye.”

Liza frowned. “It’s still quite early, although by vampire standards it’s late. I won’t be very surprised if he wasn’t answering the phone. As for a goodbye letter, he did step down yesterday and I’ll respect his choice-”

“No, not that kind of ‘goodbye and see you on the weekend for dinner’ type.” Deniss sighed as he slowly calmed down and realized it wasn’t a good idea to leave the building now, “I felt…it’s a farewell letter. The tone, the word choice, seems to be as if I’ll never see him again. Who still use ‘adieu’ as a normal sign-off?”

She suddenly looked very concerned. Deniss continued, “Really, it was like, farewell, and…”

“To god.” She murmured, her eyes focused on no particular thing in the bustling hall.

“What?” Deniss was stunned. “Liza, you’re a vamp-”

She fumbled in her bag and found her phone. “It literally means ‘to god’, which I think he must know, and I…” she dialed a number and sighed as she waited for someone to pick up, “I’m as worried as you now.”

She called Maxim, a werewolf, who was their mutual friend prior to his, and Stephane’s transition. “He didn’t pick up Deniss’s call, and we need him to, um, clarify something quite urgently. Both of us would not able to leave now, and if you can knock on his door-or actually, Deniss should still have his house key.”

She didn’t tell Maxim about the letter, as it might just be too stressful for another person to know it.

“We will have to tell them about it later.” Liza walked Deniss back to his office, after leaving the key at the reception for Maxim, “I mean...just stay here until we hear an update from him, alright?”

Deniss nodded. He knew it’s the most sensible thing to do now, but he had to persuade himself to. It’s hard to do anything without thinking about the letter and the message between the lines.

“I told him about the letter.” Liza knocked on Deniss’s door half an hour later, “Steph wasn’t home.”

Deniss closed his eyes. Maybe Stephane had decided to move, but really, he didn’t hear any plans about this. He tried very best not to think about the worst.

It wasn’t until late afternoon, did they hear back from Maxim. “I went to the lakeside.” The werewolf’s words sent a shiver down Liza’s spine, “And found the necklace here-I mean, the wrapped parcel. I opened it.”

Liza ran to Deniss’s office with Maxim still on the line. “…I’ll go as soon as the sun’s down.” Deniss took a deep breath, “which should be very soon.”

“He might…just had taken a walk here last night and, it might accidentally have been dropped there.” Liza tried to find an explanation but couldn’t even persuade herself. Both of them knew how Stephane kept the necklace. If he didn’t lose it in a hundred years on the road, it would be very unlikely for him to lose it now.

“…According to legal proceedings,” Liza said as they stood by the lake with Maxim holding the necklace, “We’ll wait for another two weeks.” After which the person could be reported as missing, and with sufficient evidence, a death _in absentia_ could be declared.

Deniss slowly climbed the staircase with the other two. “I think…I have a plan after general election.” He said.

“We’ve just taken our oaths, and there’s still one year for the provisional cabinet.” Liza sighed, “Anyway, your plans?”

Deniss lifted his chin and cast his glance towards the mountain next to the castle. “Someone needs to tell the world about him, about all other friends, about…us.”

It won’t only be for Stephane. He would embark on another journey to research about, and write about, these people. Maybe he would start with Chris-or even further back in time. It would be for Satoko, Camden, Koshiro, Shoma, Nathan, and all others whom he might personally know, or might only have heard about their names. As a vampire, he still had time to spare.

Liza patted his shoulders. “I shouldn’t be saying that, because I’m supposed to be a vampire. But…I’m sure he’ll see his beloved, maybe even finally reunite with his faith.”

**Author's Note:**

> *I’ve had a very long journey, and it’s time to take a break. Good luck and work hard.


End file.
